History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. III.] LTHE PARST VEAR. 113

year of his reign should be said to have ended on that day. Thus if a king was crowned on the Ist day of January, or on any other subsequent day before the 21st of March, the second year of his reion would be reckoned from the latter date. Yazdezard Sheryar ascended the throne on the first day of the Fravardin month, which corresponds with the 16th of June A.D. 632. The second year of his reign commenced according to practice on the 21st of March a.p. 633. But as a matter of fact the Parsi year commences at present, and has done so for as far back as memory goes, from Roz (day) Ahura Mazda, Mah (month) Fravardin, which corresponds with the 19th August of the Kadmis and the 19th September of the Shehenshais. If regular intercalations had taken place after Yazdezard up to the present day, it is computed that the Parsi new year would have corresponded with the solar year which commences on the 21st day of March, a day still celebrated with great pomp in Persia by both Mahomedans and Zoroastrians.* This is a clear solution of the question which so much vexed the Parsis during the earlier part of the present century. The next question which suggests itself is, Why do not the Parsis of the present day do away with this difference? The answer is a simple one. The change would create so much confusion in the dates of old events and records that they 1 See account of Jamshedi Naoroz in the notice of Parsi festivals.

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